Creativity, What is It? & What is Art?
Purple Iris, Spirit Rushing
Keynotes: Faith in action, Trust in the unseen
Buy a print of this painting here.
What is Art? What is it's purpose?
Question: Is Art dependent upon rules? If so, what kind of rules, and how do we agree to see things in a certain way? I'm not talking about art-related techniques, but rather about our perception of reality, both inner and outer. Technique becomes easier to master as we reorient and re-attune our senses.
We rarely experience life as it is. Instead, we've become adept at relying on mental constructs. Our minds fill in the details, often to an unhealthy extreme. Why is this?
Think back. We've been trained this way since our early school days. We see a rose, name it, catalog it, and then— surprise, it disappears from our experience. Why? It must because our thinking mind has taken over. The thinking mind does not allow us to experience life firsthand.
Rather than experiencing the rose, sensing its dimensional beingness and qualities, we think around it. We circumvent the being and allow the idea, the representation of the rose to become the reality. This is how we've isolated ourselves from nature and the very depth of our connection to self. To balance this, we need downtime and reconnection with our true nature. Mother Nature provides the linkup.
Can't figure things out? Go to the Zone.
When we're in sync with ourselves, nature, and the endless depth of our being, we just know. Thinking takes a bask seat, and we understand that everything has its place. We're somehow okay in the midst of it all and feel supported by the largeness of life rather than the confines of our circumstances. These are all symptoms of being in the Zone.
Engaging our creative nature is a pathway. Creating art from a place connected to our creative spark breaks the bondage of agreed-upon narratives that stifle and dim our light. When we glimpse the freedom, we soar. We want to cling to it and look for ways to keep it close to us.
This is how I developed my learning programs and the body of work I call Exquisite Paintings on The Nature of Flowers. I began observing and creating in a way that kept me interested, energized, and constantly breaking free from everything I was taught that was false.
It has taken me years to integrate and refine, and my work continues to grow and develop as I do. It's this practical and spiritual pursuit that keeps me connected to myself. And thankfully, the result is beautiful artwork.
— Leslie Montana
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Exquisite Paintings on the Nature of Flowers is a body of work based on a sophisticated visual analysis of Nature's frequencies = LOVE. This long-standing body of work, ongoing and now in phase two, began in the early 1990s and is the culmination of a lifetime quest—a sacred journey into the heart of Nature, Beauty, and healing the myth of separation.